User blog:Daburu/Shounen Toppa Bashin manga reflections
DDL link here. Spoilers and walls of text ahead, be warned. Another year of work, another manga complete. I certainly wish I could have taken less than a year though. The official site uploading the ultra-clear pages was a godsend, but at the same time, redoing the earlier chapters with the new raws was such a pain. Next time, announce a revival when I'm NOT three-quarters through please. Shounen Toppa Bashin: The Manga was certainly an improvement over Sword Eyes. For one, there weren't any of those pesky "last time on" pages that take forever to do. Ichishiki's style is to just summarize, but Fujii made the most of his 14 chapters by departing from the anime (hence I'm not looking forward to the Double Drive manga much, it's Isshiki again). Though it is kind of funny how the story became further from the anime, yet the art style started looking more and more like the anime. In terms of battles, I'm not sure if the author knew what he was doing at the start, but seeing as the manga started before the game even came out, gotta cut him some slack. Despite wasting a few chapters with filler Nazo-Otona at the start (WAS CHAPTER TWO REALLY NECESSARY? WAS THIS MIND SCARRING REQUIRED??), the main characters that managed to get battles were all pretty well-defined. Let's start with J: his main interest is battling to win. What a jerk. I mean, later the "I'm doing this for my dad" motivation pops up, but he's still a soda-drinking dweeb. He had like 3 battles against Bashin and the first two didn't actually count. But really, seeing him get tempted by the devil to become not-actually-Jack-Knight was pretty cool, mostly for the battle conversation that he had with Bashin. "If you build walls around your heart, nobody will understand your feelings!" The best part about him in the manga was probably the redesign, he looks so fancy in the earlier chapters. On the other hand, Suiren unfortunately gets only one battle to show off, and she loses that. Even so, it does establish her as a pretty strong character. Not only does she have good strategy (albeit impossible, nobody can summon three Mistweasel on one turn), she also has a very clear personality. She's battling for her own selfish reasons and is treated as an equal rather than as a /giiiiiiirl/. She was pretty well defined for the little time she got. Perhaps the one part that wasn't really touched on so much was her side as My Sunshine, since it was acknowledged who she was but My Sunshine never got any *active* time. Smile in this version was really interesting. Honestly, you might as well call him a different character with the same name and similar appearance. The "kekeke"s were a lot more annoying in this version though. But despite reading spoilers, I was still stunned at him being a _LITERAL DEMON_. Seriously, he's like "oh, my real name's Abbadon and I appear at doomsday, but enough about me". Kind of incredible how he just tosses that aside like that. But that made him an optimal final boss, not having to spend too much time on his backstory/motivation. Plus he gets to clone himself, which was pretty convenient. And man, are Mika and Valiero pretty in this version. The real big bad was Number 9, who confused me for a while. Not only is he super gaunt in this version, but he's got the personality to match. Before chapter 14, it seemed like he was evil just for the sake of being evil. But then comes the last chapter, and his entire backstory and motivation is revealed in three panels. The moment I noticed it, I just kept saying "Damn. Damn!" at random intervals for the next few hours. It's a really potent backstory, and what makes it even more incredible is that it's actually hinted at in earlier chapters too. Without those three panels he's nothing, but with them, his entire character makes sense. I've got nothing but respect for the author for managing that. Bashin at this version started out as an unlikable prick, but you really warm up to him. He goes from selfish BatoSupi playing to playing it as a connection to his friends and family. The change in artstyle certainly helped as well. But the biggest turn point for his change was really Striker's introduction. God, I love Striker in this version. My absolute favorite part of the entire manga is Bashin and Striker's incredible bromance. If I get started on it I'll never stop, and maybe I'm reading too much into it, but rest assured it's the best part. Striker's sacrifice and purity, Bashin's guilt, the two of them playing together... Bashin's angsty facial expressions contrasting with Striker's sad optimism made this entire manga worth it. Both in the anime and the manga, Striker's decision to pursue the thing that made him lose his passion gets me every time. The downside of the short run was that the main cast was very limited, and the side cast even more so. Meganeko did nothing, and Kyouka didn't even show up ><. The Numbers who weren't 3, 4, or 9 got barely anything, not even the usual "Sexy? No! Galaxy!!". But I'm glad Meganeko at least got to show up. She was less of a character and more of a role-fulfiller -- childhood friend, damsel in distress. So maybe it's better that Kyouka didn't get her moment, lest she end up a pointless character. In fact, she probably would have stepped on J's motivation. At the very least, it's a pity. All in all, it felt like the author had a really clear idea of where he was going across most of the manga. The plot wasn't just shoved off to the last two chapters. There was actually some foreshadowing too. There was a definite message of "bonds" there too. It was pretty great as is. The one problem that really struck me with it, though, was the epilogue. Just... running. What happened to Aibou and the other pets after the pyroxene cracked? Does anyone remember the almost-Armageddon? It kills me every time to think of how Striker's gotta feel with Cap still talking without an actual mind. On a less intensive note, there was also Shomen Tanteidan. I've been wanting to read this ever since I found out it existed, but it was probably a good thing that I waited. It's so heavy on the flavor text, yet it bends the text in an unusual way to turn them into real-life mysteries. The most important revelations I got from it was the possibility of Lolo having the grey pyroxene, but that's such a heavy-read in that it's probably not canon. I can still believe, though. Meganeko being the main character was not something I expected. It was really cool to see the author lock onto a non-card game-playing character and turn them into a reason to buy cards. It almost makes up for her lack of time in the manga. Seeing Bashin as a side character was an interesting turn as well. As for Oriba... complete gpoy. Him being the mysterious villain did get on my nerves for most of the book, but once he lost control, that's where things got great. I always love seeing the villains lose their minds, and Oriba's twisted face was really clear even in text form. Anyway, this was a "fun" way to spend my free time during the year, and I feel like I've leveled up even more. For the coming months though, I do want to relax. So, no plans for future manga projects for the next while. I do want to finish up those CD dramas though. Category:Blog posts